The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 23, 1976
Filed:
Sep. 11, 1973
David Vernon Freck, London, EN;
Central Electricity Generating Board, London, EN;
Abstract
Particle fuel, such as is used in high temperature nuclear reactors, and having the fuel material coated with a pyrolytic carbon coating impermeable to gaseous fission products and embedded in a matrix of graphite, incorporates radium 226 which may be included in the binder for the grains of the fuel. During the manufacturing process, the integrity of the pyrolytic carbon coating can be checked before irradiation in a reactor by circulating an inert gas such as argon over the particles at a temperature in excess of 800.degree.C. This may be carried out in the final carbonisation step during manufacture or immediately before vacuum degassing. The inert gas after passing over the particles is checked for the presence of radon 222, for example by passing the gas into a decay chamber having a filter in its outlet to collect radio active solid daughters of radon and counting the alpha particles emitted by the material collected by the filter. It is thus possible to test the integrity of the pyrolytic carbon coating before the fuel is irradiated.